Prepared To Hate You

The Reunion

Being on stage again almost made her cry in joy. The rush that came with performing was unlike anything she had ever experienced. She hadn't realised how much she had loved it until she had been voted out of the competition and lost her chance. Until now, that is.

Performing with BTS on stage was better than she ever could have imagined. It might have been different if they hadn't bonded as a group of eight over the past week, but as it was, she had fun. Her only worry was the reaction of ARMY to seeing someone new performing with their beloved BTS, but on stage, she forgot about all of that. All that mattered at that moment was that she performed well and with that she was confident.

The months of preparation for this moment, the hours of practice from early in the morning to late at night, it had all been worth it. She had worked hard not to let down the other members of BTS, and as they finished their performance she was pleased, and dare she say proud, of herself. Everything had gone perfectly, and she smiled at the thought that she felt as though she had fit in well with the group.

As they waved goodbye, the crowd cheered, and she felt hopeful that they had enjoyed the first performance from the eight-member version of BTS. The boys had big smiles and as soon as they got off stage, they complimented each other on doing a good job. When they went in for a group hug, Taehyung and Jimin saw her standing to the side and pulled her in between the two of them. She laughed at the happiness she felt.

They were all talking over each other about their performance as they headed back to their dress room. She almost bumped into Jin and Jungkook who had stopped in the doorway. Rising onto her tiptoes she saw two figures were in the room waiting for them, but she couldn't see who from behind the tall bodies of BTS.

Suddenly the boys parted, and she had a clear view. At first, she froze in shock, not believing who was there, but then she ran forwards in excitement.

"Yibo?!"

She stopped in front of the Chinese Idol. What she really wanted to do was give him a hug, but it had been a long time since she had last seen him. Although they had talked a couple of times over the past few months, she still wasn't sure where they stood with each other. They never spoke about how they felt.

"Hi."

"How? Why? You're here!"

Wang Yibo stared into her eyes with an unreadable expression. From beside her, Lay spoke up.

"We couldn't miss your big debut now, could we?"

"Thank you. You didn't have to. You must be so-"

"I wanted to."

When Yibo cut her off, his words made her heart pound. She watched as he moved to get something from the table behind him. It was a bouquet of flowers. He held them out to her.

"Thank you. They're pretty."

"You worked hard. I knew you could do it."

The world around them disappeared as the two of them looked at each other, each trying to figure out what they should say next.

They were interrupted by a throat clearing and a hand resting on her shoulder.

"Uh, hello. Nice to see you again, Lay. Nice to meet you. I'm Kim Namjoon. Her leader."